Swan Real creates charming soundscapes on her latest album Good For Her. The album shows her to be a creative dabbler in music: and while the results are charming and feel effortless, there is a clear dedication to craft her. As airy as Swan Real’s compositions are, one can feel the number of drafts these songs went through before Real felt they were finally ready. While not strictly a country album, there are elements of twang and power pop that make the album feel firmly grounded in the fertile conditions that spawned alt-country. (You may remember Swan Real from her performance with Mya Byrne at the Concert for Love and Acceptance in Nashville.)
Good For Her kicks off with dreamy power pop “Sweeten.” The gauzy confection transports us to another time and place — namely, Athens in the ’90s — but there’s a bit of a distorted edge lurking in the background that centers Swan Real’s Bay Area roots. The song begins in a moment of hesitance before plunging into a sincere expression of gratitude and love that feels brave just in the execution of the song.
Swan Real also composes the interstitials and soundscapes for the 99% Invisible podcast, and that knack for layering textures is evident throughout the album. The instrumental “Wendy&Pete” is a charming little beep-beep-boop-boop interlude that grounds Good For Her in our decade, even as Real freely borrows from a number of genres to create something wholly her own. Likewise, the extended outro to “Simple Machine” demonstrates Real’s prowess at following simple hooks to their logical — and powerful — conclusions: a reveling in music that demonstrates her dedication to her craft.
Good For Her tackles some tough stuff as well. “Basic Girls” is a dreamy, ennui-laden postcard of gender dysphoria and the paralysis it often engenders. Yet the driving beat suggests that these feelings are only temporary. The album concludes with the the sinuous “Parts & Labor.” Like “Sweetness,” Swan Real begins from a place of trepidation before arriving at acceptance and pride.